First Chance
by Claerwen
Summary: Sent away to live with her father after her mother's death, Bella Swan moves into the elite town of Greenwich, in world where humans and vampires coexist. Strange things start to happen as Charlie disappears, leaving Bella in the hands of the Cullens.


**Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight I'd be shopping right now.**

Summary (the stuff which will eventually happen):  
Isabella Swan is a seventeen year old girl who recently moved in with her father Charles in a small English town during the late 1800s. In this AU, vampires, werewolves, and humans live together in peace under the ruling vampires the Volturi who reside in northern Scotland. Her father Charles is a low-ranking colonel in the army, and her mother Renee recently passed away, causing Isabella's move to Charles. Isabella is childhood friends with Jacob, whom she does not know is to be a werewolf. She is training as an apprentice seamstress with Mrs. Newton along with Jessica and Angela. She eventually falls in love with a rich young member of elite society, Edward Cullen, who happens to be a vampire and forbidden to her. However, a traveller from the Roman Empire arrives - James - and wants to hunt Isabella.  
So basically its Twilight AU.

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My hand skimmed over the pale green silk I held in my lap, swiftly checking and rechecking for a missing or undone stitch, extra thread hanging out, sloppy stitches, and any other sign of slight imperfection. Mrs. Newton was a kind hearted woman, but a huge perfectionist. I shook the pale green silk, smoothing it out on my lap. It was a beautiful dress, wonderfully designed. The color was just too sickly.

"Are you done with that dress yet, Bella?" The sharp voice of Mrs. Newton snapped me to reality. "For heavens sakes! You only had to fix the hem on the bottom! Madame Tulle wants to wear it to the ball _tonight_! Hurry!" I stifled a yawn and quietly folded the dress.

This was my job.

My future life.

A career my parents wanted me to carry on.

A seamstress.

I tossed the sickly colored dress to my fellow apprentice, Jessica, who would check over it again. She was chatting on and on to Angela and I about something or other. Jessica always supplied the conversation. Angela and I would just absent-mindedly nod and agree to whatever she was saying.

I had typically the same routine every weekday. I got to work at seven in the morning, kept working until around four when Michael - Mrs. Newton's son - would show up and walk the three of us home. Mrs. Newton never really trusted us with the complete sewing of a dress, but even so the three of us were always kept busy. At exactly four o'clock later that day, Mrs. Newton let us go. She had a remaining hour to deal with the two other "official" seamstresses who also worked with her. They were elderly, and I supposed Mrs. Newton meant the three of us to take their jobs eventually. Michael was waiting loyally to walk the three of us home, something he almost never failed to do.

"Good day," he said, tipping his hat to us as always.

"Hello," answered Angela and I simultaneously. Jessica giggled. She had a small crush on Michael, though she wouldn't admit it. She would always fawn over him with his mother.

"Oh, Mike! The most funny thing happened today!" Jessica exclaimed, launching into a slightly exaggerated story of something that happened earlier that day. I shared a short glance with Angela, grinning. We both pretended to listen, our thoughts elsewhere. Angela soon hoped to be engaged to her beau, Benjamin. However, he had not popped the question yet. She was still rather young. She had just turned eighteen, which was the normal age for marriage, but her parents were deviants.

I stared up at the cloudy gray sky and my mind strayed away from the shallow chatter. My head seemed overwhelmed by the vast expense of atmosphere. It hurt to stare up at the sky. The four of us followed our usual shortcut through the downtown, dropping Angela off at the church, where her father was a clergyman. We passed through the shopping district, the boutiques slowly getting more expensive. We stared at the shiny displays, the beautiful gems catching my eye. I stared at ruby ring, when Michael suddenly put a hand in front of me to stop me from walking.

I looked up at him to see why he had stopped me, and saw why. A carriage had stopped in front of the jewelers, and the people in it were getting out.

Or should I even categorize them as people?

It was the Cullens. A rich family who lived in northern Salisbury, in the more elite side of town. I only recognized them by the beautiful blonde girl Rosalie, who was much gossiped about in our town. The father - or leader of the vampire coven, which was what they were - was a doctor. A doctor who worked in human hospitals. Many vampires lived amongst us in peace since the pact between the Volturi and werewolves, but none seemed to have enough strength as Dr. Carlisle Cullen, who operated on humans. It was odd, even though vampires were commanded to drink off animal blood, not human. Of course there were the stray vampires, the ones who came from far away places and didn't know our rule. The Volturi would ensure that no humans were harmed. However, as of late, there were rumors that even the Volturi fed off human blood in secret, slowly killing our people.

There weren't many who agreed to live alongside humans. Those who didn't roamed forests and hidden areas, staying away from the fearsome Volturi. In our societies, vampires were the cream of the crop. The blue bloods. The elite. They were most of the high class. Humans and vampies normally stayed away from each other. Every few years or so, a vampire would lose self-control and attack a human, then the werewolves would attack the vampires and there would be a short feud.

But back to the Cullens. There were five of them, and I do not think the doctor or his wife were with them. It was just the "adopted children." Vampires couldn't really have children, see. The first one who stepped out of the carriage was rather short, with strange, short black hair. She was smiling widely, and didn't seemed to notice us as she danced out of the carriage, her hand dragging a pale blond young man. He looked uneasy, as if still not used to this abstinent lifestyle they had. They were so graceful, the sun sparkling on their pale skin.

After him came a huge muscular man, who it seemed could barely fit through the carriage door. Nevertheless, he did, escorting the pretty blonde girl. She was the first to notice us, and shot us an acerbic look before raising her head high and strutting into the jewelers shop, the muscular man's arm draped around her shoulders.

Last to come out was another boy I had not seen. He had the typical vampire honey-colored eyes, except his shone like topaz, matching his bronze hair which leaned to a reddish hue. Those eyes scanned over the three of us, stopping to bore into mine. I put my head down ad stared at my feet, feeling uneasy. Why was he staring at me? My eyes slowly moved across the floor to his feet, which had stopped moving. He was standing still, staring at me. But why? His siblings were walking, laughing, already in the entrance of the store. Michael and Jessica stared at me quizzically.

Then finally, he turned his feet and continued walking, shutting the shop's door without a backwards glance.

"You're not breathing, Bella," grinned Jessica. I let out a breath and looked at her face, expecting her twinkling, teasing eyes. Instead I saw confusion, and something else. Michael too, was staring at me oddly.

"Is there...something wrong?" I asked. I sniffed my hair to make sure that wasn't why they were looking at me oddly. I certainly hoped it wasn't why the bronze-haired boy was staring at me. Michael and Jessica shook their heads. "Who _was _that?"

"Edward Cullen. Didn't you know?" Said Jessica. "He's the most handsome Cullen, isn't he?" She gushed. "He probably _just _remembered seeing you from somewhere." She justified. Michael was staring at me oddly, still.

"I've never seen him before," I said. We resumed walking home. My home was farthest, but Michael walked me all the way. We normally didn't see vampires down where we lived.

I guessed that's why none of us spoke again except for "Good night" that afternoon

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**Remember the first chapter of Twilight? **

**Wasn't it the most boring in the whole book?**

**Well, that's why this chapter wasn't too great! **

**But review anyways. NOW**

-Claerwen ;)

p.s. I suck at Edward and Bella fics...this is my first one...tell me how i'm doing cause this is my second try at romance. I am good at writing humor.


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